Cops ramp up patrols, operations in MoBay as Christmas approaches
Published:Thursday | October 20, 2022 | 12:10 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer
With a spike in murders within the inner city of Montego Bay, St James, Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Chambers has indicated that the police will be moving to make the Second City safer over the coming weeks as the Christmas season approaches, especially with the introduction of a mobile police station.
“We will be pushing this mobile police station into the space at an appropriate time, and again, outside of that, we will continue to push into the known hotspots,” Chambers told The Gleaner.
He stated that the police will be out in their numbers with several departments of the Jamaica Constabulary Force lending support to the effort to tackle rising crime.
“With regards to the Operation Restore Paradise, that is number one, and with Operation Relentless, that dovetails into that, and what we did was prepare and present them to the High Command, which is the operational plan going into Christmas,” said Chambers.
He said that this resulted in the need for more manpower, noting that numbers have been boosted.
“We got over 40 personnel over a week ago, 20 of which have since been placed within the Barnett Street area. We also have some additional motorcyclists and motorcycle police in St James itself,” said Chambers, who is in charge of the polices Area One, which covers St James, Trelawny, Hanover, and Westmoreland.
He added that the police are working with the St James Municipal Corporation to have vendors licensed and accommodated in designated vending zones.
Chambers related that the police would be pushing a multiplicity of security solutions into the upcoming holidays.
St James recorded four murders since last Friday night, with two of these homicides occurring within the city of Montego Bay.
About 6 a.m. on Tuesday, 34-year-old Marvin Griffiths, a student of Lottery in St James, was discovered shot to death along Old Fort Street in Montego Bay.
Thirty-year-old Quaine Nisbeth, a gardener of Niagra in the parish, was also gunned down outside the Total service station along Barnett Street in the city about 9 p.m. last Friday.
The other two persons killed were 44-year-old Rohan James, a construction worker of Coke Road in Glendevon, who was shot about 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, just four days after 28-year-old Tyrone Palache was also gunned down in the Saigon community in Barrett Town.
Since the start of the year, more than 160 persons have been slain in the parish of St James.